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Steve Stockman challenges John Cornyn

The Texas Tribune reports that Congressman Steve Stockman, an extremely controversial and archconservative Republican, will challenge US Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) in the Republican primary. Thus far, Cornyn has largely avoided formidable Republican opposition, but a challenge from high-profile Stockman could prove to be lethal to his political career.

Rumor has it that Stockman was gearing up for a brutish primary fight against a more establishment Republican. The scandal plagued Stockman has become a folk-hero among those in the far-right, while Cornyn has been accused as an insincere Republican for allegedly not supporting Ted Cruz enough. In fact, Cruz pointedly declined to endorse Cornyn’s re-election. In Stockman’s soon-to-be former Congressional district (the 36th), John Amdur and Phil Fitzgerald have become last-minute contenders to succeed the Congressman.

Stockman originally announced his intentions in an exclusive interview with WND. In announcing his candidacy, he said “We are extremely disappointed in the way [Cornyn] treated his fellow congressmen and broke the 11th commandment and undermined (Sen.) Ted Cruz’s fight to stop Obamacare. And now, it looks like Cruz was right and Cornyn was wrong. He (Cornyn) sided with the president, essentially, in making sure Obamacare became law while Cruz did everything possible to stop it.”

With a full five other candidates in the primary, the odds for this heading to a primary runoff are relatively high. From there, it is anyone’s game. The decision should serve as a testament to just how far extreme the Republican Party has gone in recent years. In fact, National Review recently rated Cornyn as the 2nd most conservative member of the Senate. Ted Cruz did not even appear on the 15 person list (though it might have excluded freshmen).

I would like to sternly warn fellow Democrats how dangerous it is to root for someone like Stockman to win this primary. Make no mistake, the Republican primary is tantamount to election next year. 2014 is looking to be really bad year for the Democrats, so a gaggle of B-team candidates on the Democratic side will do very little to stop the GOP nominee, whomever he may be. All I can say is that you’ve been warned.